The Mana Wars

[Ashley_Winston]

Jessie gave him a look. "Well we all want to kill him. Why not each of us kill him at the same time? That way everyone feels they've accomplished what they came to do."  

[Maha1930]

Urie laughed. "Oh? And I presume we should each take a piece of him as a souvenir? Pathetic you are." But before Jessie could even muster a word Urie had drew his pistol and fired it at the emperor. The body on the bed shook and then faded away as if there was nothing there in the first place.

Vex's eyes widened. "What the?"

"Hmph," Urie replied holstering his weapon again. "Hologram, just as I suspected. Apparently the new Emperor isn't too keen on slip up's. Not even trusting his own guard with his body, even though I was bent on killing him anyways.." Urie's voice trailed off and the group could hears footsteps from outside the door. "The guards would be alerted by now, it won't take them too long to cut into that door, now we make our escape." Urie pointed across the bed and to the window overlooking the space dock.

"You want us to jump out of the window?! There's nothing even underneath us! The only part of the ship that's actually docked is the docking bay! We'd fall who knows how many feet. "No I'm not jumping!" But the red dot that appeared on the door behind them marked the start of the soldiers cutting into the door, and one step closer to getting captured again. Vex turned back to face Urie. "You best have a plan."

Urie smirked. "You underestimate me, now let's go!" Urie shot the glass, cracking it, then shattering. They vaulted out of the window one after another, with Lucius tagging behind. The group fell, the wind whipping up their clothes as they fell and fell, down and down. Urie rummaged for something in his pocket, a small ball looking contraption. He threw it in the air above them aand watched it rocket down past them.

"Oh yeah!" vex shouted over the sound of the wind whipping by his ears. "Very effective!"

"Watch!" Urie shouted back and he struggled to point his gun against the force of the wind, but he somehow managed to align his gun just right and fire with such precision that it hit the ball. Which then exploded in a bolt of electricity forming what looked like a motorcycle in mid-air right below them.

"Whoa!" Vex shouted and Urie and Vex both landed on it's metallic body. Vex cried out in pain. "You couldn't have padding?!"

Urie laughed, "Whoops, sorry. I guess I'm use to it." But the two of them hadn't realized that they were the only two to land on the bike, Jessie and Lucius were still falling at mind altering speeds downwards towards land.

"Lucius! Jessie!" Vex shouted. "Urie, we have to go get them!"

"Tch, not enough time, I can probably track the Emperor's last know position but not if I go after your friends there. We have to move now."

"No! We have to go get Lucius and Jessie! Now!" Vex said shouting in Urie's ear. And before Urie could utter another syllable Vex powered up his right fire insignia glove, shoving it Urie's face. "I said NOW!"

"Tch, fine." Urie said with disgust in his voice. "Hold on then." Urie revved up the engine and the bike made a total 90° turn downward.

Vex quickly wrapped his arms around Urie since there really wasn't anywhere else to grab. Those thoughts started appearing in Vex's head again, but he shook them out of his mind, he had to focus on getting Lucius and Jessie back right now.

Urie flew past the falling duo, positing the bike directly under them, Vex reached out his hands catching Jessie in his arms, but Lucius's fur seemed to make him more aerodynamic since he flew by, too fast for Vex to catch him as well.

"Lucius!" Vex shouted seeing his faithful companion still falling.

An announcement came over an intercom on the bike, it had been intercepted from the dock's wireless communications. "Attention all personal, the ship from Balthier III will be warping in shortly, please clear all air-space immediately. Thank you, and have a pleasant day."

Urie revved up the engines heading after Lucius as Jessie hung onto Vex as the bolted downward again. "s**t, that ship is warping in any minute now and we're right in their airspace."

"What does that mean?" Vex asked frantically.

Urie then replied in a serious tone. "We're dead if we don't get your friend in the next 30 seconds." They sped down but it seemed they were matching Lucius's speed, not exceeding it. Vex reached out pushing Urie's right hand further on the controls exceeding the bike's speed even more. But it still didn't seem enough. The bike's monitor began blinking red, detecting a incoming warp. They were right next to Lucius as they saw a blue light engulf the space. And right as this happened, Urie slammed the monitor and the bike disappeared from sight as the Balthier III warped in.

Vex, Urie and Jessie all materialized, heading towards ground. The three of them jumped off the bike just as it hit the ground exploding into tiny pieces.

"s**t!" Urie yelled. "That was my favorite sky-bike!" And as the parts rained down around them, so did Lucius, landing right next to his master. Apparently the jump had been close enough to the mutt to include him in the transfer.  

[Ashley_Winston]

Jessie scowled at Urie. "It was either your bike or all of our lives." She ran over to Lucius and got on her knees, "You ok Lucius?" She started petting him along with Vex who both checked him for any injuries. "Why do you have to be such an a**, Urie? I'm sure we could have waited a least one more second to catch Lucius!" She yelled at Urie.  

[Maha1930]

Urie turned away from Jessie. "The dog was close enough to be in range of the transport. He's here isn't he? I don't hear the boy complaining."

"It's Vex," Vex replied solemnly, stroking Lucius's head. "And He's fine, but what do we do now?"

Urie got up, dusting himself off. "Well, there's nothing we can do. The bike's scrap, and we have no location of where the emperor is or where we even are. From the looks of it, it's some dense jungle." He said looking around at the many trees covered in vines that surrounded them.  

[Ashley_Winston]

Jessie looked around for the first time just noticing the jungle as Urie mentioned it. She stood up and took in her surroundings thinking to herself Urie was right, it is dense. But how dense is the question. If they landed near the edge but couldn't see it then that's great, but if they landed somewhere near the middle, not so much.  

[Maha1930]

Urie spotted something shimmering in the distance, so he trudged through the foliage, grabbing whatever it was that caught his eye.

Vex called to him. "Urie, what is it?"

Urie came back into view and into the clearing the rest of them were sitting in. "The display from the bike, it's still intact." He pressed a button and the little display illuminated itself. He began touching buttons here and there on the display then smirked. "Got it. This display can pin-point our location in regards to the nearest power source."

Vex was silent, processing the information in his head. "So...how does that help us?"

Urie laughed. "Well, little boy, where there's power, there's usually people. And where there's people there's food. And-"

"Okay, I get it. When we reach this power source, we could probably find our way out of here by asking around. Just shut up, you're so obnoxious." Vex grimaced.

A very satisfied grin spread across Urie's face. "Sorry, didn't mean to be." He replied, but you could hear the sarcasm in his voice. "By my readings...we should reach the power source in about...6 miles."  

[Ashley_Winston]

Jessie laughed at them bickering and nudged Vex, smiling. Jessie stood up. "Well we should get started then. Six miles may seem little, but will take awhile. Better six than way more." Jessie said, then asked Urie, "Which way to the power source?"  

[Maha1930]

Urie looked up from the monitor and pointed to Jessie. "That way." Urie and Jessie started walking but Vex stopped them.

"Hey, hey, hey you guys! Lucius needs to recooperate! It's been a rough two days for him. Plus he just fell god who knows how many feet, it's a miracle he's not broken something."

Urie laughed. "Then you should get rid of him, he'll only slow us and you down. So stop your bickering and leave him."

Vex turned his head in disgust. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, I apologize for not being as heartless as you." He got up and went into the forest calling after him. "I'm going to get some plants and make a tent and make camp, I suggest you guys do the same. It looks to me like it's getting dark anyways."  

[Ashley_Winston]

Jessie laughs. "I agree with Vex. I don't want to leave poor Lucius behind." She looked at Vex, "Good idea. Yea, I'll go get some giant leaves and make home in a tree." Jessie grabbed a stick off the ground and winked at them. "Don't wanna get lost." She started walking off into the forest as she dragged the stick, marking her trail.

A few hours later she came back with about five giant leaves. Jessie walked over to a tree, examining it then decided it'll do. She took the leaves and attached them to her sheath, then started climbing up to about the middle of the tree where they were branches big enough to lay on.

She sat on a branch about two feet wide and unhooked the leaves and placed them next to her. Then she stood up carefully grabbing branches above her, reaching down and grabbing the giant leaves. She placed one at a time onto the branches above her and made a rope out of tall weeds she came across while finding the leaves. Jessie took the rope from around her waist and tied it through each leave then tied both ends to separate branches tightening them and pulling hard.

When she finished tieing and pulling, the leaves were spread across in the air just a few inches above the branches over Jessie's head. She then lay down on the branch she had sat on and went to sleep.  

[Maha1930]

After several hours the group was soundly asleep. Lucius, whimpering in his sleep, apparently having a bad dream. Vex however, stared up at the dense overhang of trees, not able to make out any stars at all. He lay there, surrounded by the blanket he had made out of leaves. He gave up on making a tent since Lucius seemed to demand knocking it down every time he finished building one.

"What's happening to me?" He asked himself aloud. "What have I gotten myself into? Plotting to kill the emperor? Teaming up with these bunch of renegades? My life really has gone down the toilet, ever since..." But with such painful memories starting to re-surface, he stopped. He wiped away the tears that had started to well up in his eyes, even with everyone asleep, he still needed to maintain his tough guy exterior. "I can't believe it's been Five years today." The memories of Li's dead body came back to life in his mind. He couldn't bare it then and he still couldn't now as he tried to push it out of his head. "And what was up with that weird dream?" Trying to change the subject so that his mind could think elsewhere. "The secret cat? What's that about?"

"Who are you talking too?" A voice called from right in front of him. Vex jumped snatching his makeshift blanket, hiding inside. "Vex..."

Vex recognized that tone of disappointment, it was Urie. His eyes adjusted as he poked his head of the blanket and his face came into view. He looked different, seeing as how he took off his soldier gear. All he was wearing was leather flex pants, and a vintage army coat with no undershirt. These images were certainly not helping Vex's mind rule out his illogical thinking of late as his eyes focused on Urie's bare chest. "Uhh..heyy Urie. What's up?" He said trying to sound as casual as he could be.

Urie yawned. "Scouting the area, see if we were being watched."

"And are we?" Vex asked.

Urie shook his head. "Doesn't seem like it, if we were, we would certainly be dead by now."

"Yeah..." Vex replied solemnly. "Hey Urie, can I ask you a question."

"No."

"Why not?"

Urie groaned and plopped on his back right beside Vex. "Fine, go ahead. You're just probably going to keep nagging me anyways."

Vex laughed but then continued on with his question, "Urie, why are you after the Emperor? I mean, what did he ever do to you?" The conversation then grew silent. But after a few minutes Urie replied.

"Well, he...wait, why do you want to know?" Urie asked defensively.

"I was just curious," Vex replied. "Would you tell me if I told you why I'm after him?"

Urie sighed. "Why do I always find myself in these, "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours," situations?" He paused before replying, "Proceed, if you must."

Vex chuckled. "Well, about five years ago the current emperor had...taken something very close to me. Which left me and Lucius, my dog, all alone. I mean, we were fine before, but not after it had happened. I vowed to take revenge on the emperor, to avenge the life of the one he had killed. But, alas, the emperor had died exactly one year ago, just as I was sure enough I could make my advances on him. He had taken all my loved ones, and family away from me, and I couldn't even avenge them. But then I found out that the new emperor to be, was the past emperor's son. So, in my mind, I saw it as justice. To take away the one that he had loved and hopefully destroy the evil empire that has corrupted my planet and many others with it."

Urie was silent for a moment then replied. "Wow...touching."

"You know, you don't always have to be a d**k you know," Vex snapped back hitting Urie on the chest. He was surprised when Urie didn't retaliate back, he just lay there, motionless.

"He killed my sister, right in front of my eyes, spilling her own blood and wiping it on my hands. I was convicted and sentenced to death. But, I escaped. Made the right friends on the prison planet I was sent to. And now I'm here. And like you said, the emperor who had done the filthy deed is already dead, so just must be served in a different way. I think bringing down the empire is the way, and it starts, with the new emperor. Maybe then, my sister and your family can rest in peace."

"So..does this mean we're-" Vex started

"No, this doesn't mean we're friends Vex," Urie finished. "But, I have a question for you now, who was that other person, you mentioned before your family. The "something very close to you." I mean, I'm assuming it was a person, was it not?"

"Yeah," Vex replied glumly. "He killed my boyfriend."

"I'm sorry." Urie replied, with genuine concern in his voice.

"It's fine," Vex replied. "Not your fault."

"Hey Vex?" Urie said. And Vex turned his head to face him.

"Yeah?" But Urie just smiled at him which took Vex by surprise. "Urie, you're smiling...are you okay?"

But before Urie could reply with a witty comeback, he then shouted, "Look out!" As a gravity bomb landed in between them. They were running out of time, the bomb's ticking grew faster and faster as the two shot up and ran off into the forest, avoiding the bomb.

"Urie!" Vex yelled, "Jessie and Lucius will be caught!"

But Urie just shook his head violently, "No time!"

"But you know what a gravity bomb does! It's like a compact black hole! It sucks everything into it's core once it ignites within several seconds! Don't you tell me to leave them! Can't you use your sky-bike control or something?!" But Vex didn't wait for a response, he grabbed the console from Urie and pressed it. They both disappeared and reappeared beneath where Jessie and Lucius were, at the eye of the bomb. Vex screamed at them, waking them up, "Jump!"  

[Ashley_Winston]

Jessie heard yelling and opened her eyes to look down at Vex. She saw fear on his face and looked closer around them to see a damn gravity bomb. "********!" Jessie grabbed her stuff and quickly attached it all and jumped down landing on her feet, knees bent a little. She ran to Lucius, nudging him and waking him up, "Lucius, no time for any dog questions. Run and follow Vex!"

Both Jessie and Lucius caught up to Vex and Urie, as they kept running as far as they could.

"How the hell did they find us? Did any of you leave camp while we were sleeping? They could have picked up on our movement." She asked looking at both of them suspiciously.  

[Maha1930]

"Shush girl," Urie shouted. "None of us left camp, I don't know how they found us. Apparently this new emperor's scouts are paranoid. He's relentless he is. Now, if we don't get out of here soon that gravity bomb is going to suspend everything in zero-gravity within a mile."

"Which means we'll be caught too," Vex finished. "And we could escape on Lucius but as of right now, he's far too injured and didn't even get a proper night's rest."

Urie sighed. "Whatever, still not my fault."

"Okay..." Vex grunted as they trudged through the underbrush as fast as their legs and tails could carry them. "But can't we still use that monitor you have there? We short jumped to get Lucius and and Jessis only a minute ago."

Urie shook his head. "It'll take time to recharge again. Since it's not attached to it's core unit on the sky-bike, it takes longer for the power to acquire a full charge by itself. I'd say if we don't make it out of the bomb's radius in under a minute, we're screwed."  

[Ashley_Winston]

Jessie, tailgating behind them, said," You know Urie, you could have SOME sympathy. I mean, I know we could be caught and killed at any moment now or anytime later, but still. Why are you so heartless?"

Jessie slowed down for a few seconds to catch her breath. Jessie huffed and took deep breaths then started running again, quickly catching up with the boys. "How can you guys run for so long? Don't you ever get tired?" She asked as they heard an explosion from behind them. Jessie turned around and saw a gravity dome growing bigger. "Run faster!"  

[Maha1930]

Urie turned around to snap back at Jessie but hearing the bomb go off and the ground shake made his feet go into overdrive mode.

"Oh s**t!" Vex screamed. "Urie is that damn jump thing not charged yet?"

"No!" Urie screamed and the three of them ran faster and faster and since they had increased their speed, they had no time to react when the ground disappeared from underneath them. They had just leapt off a cliff and were rocketing downwards. Just as the bomb's bubble reached a few feet before the edge.

"Now what!" Vex screamed at Urie as they rocketed downwards. All they could see beneath them was just ocean. Ocean, and rocks. They all heard a loud alarm go off among the wind whistling by their ears.

"Everybody get close together!" Urie yelled smashing the monitor again, causing them all to disappear in a burst of light.  

[Ashley_Winston]

The flash went away and they all took in their surrounding environment. "I'm starting to like your jump thing, Urie," Jessie said, standing up and looking in the direction behind them seeing the palace," It just so happens that we were lucky and it brought us right to the palace."

Jessie turned around to look at them and smiled. Then she remembered that the alarm was still going off. "Quick, we have to hide somewhere!" She said grabbing their arms and pulling them behind a building parallel from the palace and guards.

A bunch of guards ran past them, reporting to the others that they have lost us. Again. They all went inside the palace. "This is either another chance to get in or another trap..." Jessie looked at the others questioningly. "What should we do?"